The world needs to read the final article Jamal Khashoggi wrote before he was murdered | The Canary

The world needs to read the final article Jamal Khashoggi wrote before he was murdered | The Canary

Precisely because of the lack of international condemnation, Khashoggi argues: “Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate”.

But his words apply equally to Turkey, China and Egypt. They also resonate for the 60 journalists who are “missing” and the 262 journalists who were imprisoned in 2017. As CPJ noted, the number of journalists in jail is at “a historical high”. On 23 October, Erdoğan said, “covering up this kind of savagery will hurt the conscience of all humanity”. Yet, there was little global coverage of the extensive media control in Turkey.

“There was a time when journalists believed…”
And when Khashoggi goes on to discuss wider press freedom his words take on an even greater significance globally. He wrote:

There was a time when journalists believed the Internet would liberate information from the censorship and control associated with print media. But these governments, whose very existence relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the Internet. They have also arrested local reporters and pressured advertisers to harm the revenue of specific publications.

He may be speaking about Arab countries – Saudi Arabia in particular – but this is a growing issue.